10 years ago Callie was supposed to move across country with her college boyfriend. Instead, she broke up with him. Now In present day, she finds out he wrote a movie that is seemingly about their breakup.

Based on the description, I was expecting a romcom and more focus on her and Ben. Instead, this was more of a coming of age book. But I just really didn’t care about any of the characters. I found Callie to be annoying, and most of the flashback chapters didn’t really feel necessary to me. Especially because we don’t really see much of the movie! I was also hoping for more humor or lightheartedness but was missing those.

I received my copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Typecast was an excellent debut novel by a fellow bookstagrammer! I always enjoy a story with dual timelines and I liked that it switched back and forth between the past and present. Callie was an incredibly relatable character and I enjoyed going on the journey with her to figure out what she wanted out of life. I truly enjoyed the ending and how things came together the way they were supposed to.

How would you feel if your ex wrote a film about your relationship?

I was hooked by the premise of this book, and my questions about both the past and how things would turn out definitely kept me going. Pacing slowed down for me quite a bit in the middle, but I couldn’t stop reading once I hit the last quarter.

Chapters alternate (somewhat) between “Before” and “After”. The writing was compelling and I enjoyed the character development and seeing family relationships shift. Loved the messages about the paths life takes us on and how we can think about the choices we’ve made.

Personally, I feel like the original title “Rerouting” would have better fit for this book and its reoccurring themes. I get that the author probably wanted to draw more attention to the idea of a movie being made by an ex, and hooking potential readers that way.

Overall, a solid 4 star read for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and Girl Friday Productions for sending me this arc in exchange for an honest review.
After reading the synopsis I thought I would dive in and devour it in one go but unfortunately it didn’t go as well as I thought it would.
It was a good debut for the author, her writing style is really light & enjoyable.
Rating 3.45 stars

this book was, unfortunately, a dnf. i usually don't rate or review books i did not finish reading but there is no dnf option on here. i have little to say about this book since i didn't read much and what i read i do not remember because the book was simply not interesting enough for me to keep reading, it was just too slow for me.

I loved this one! Thank you to Netgalley and Andrea Stein for allowing me to read an advanced copy of Typecast!
It's the story of Callie, a preschool teacher, who's past love life/breakup life is about to hit the big screen.
I really like Callie as the main character and her voice throughout the story. She feels real. Her job as a preschool teacher is very well written. Her relationships with family and love interests are relatable. I love that she is an over 30 character and I also loved all the book references! Without spoiling, the ending is perfect, definitely the direction I hoped it was going.
I definitely recommend this one for readers of domestic fiction and romance when it's released in September!

Before/After time line
CoHo vibes
Epic Twist

We open with college sweetheart Callie and Ethan as they are embarking on life after school. Unexpectedly the Sumer break leads to the end of the relationship and we follow Callie on her journey 10 year later when old feelings are brought back up. Andrea Stein does a great Job allowing her characters to process on the page. I did get some CoHo vibes and the twist was unexpected. Callie finds her HEA in the most unexpected place after dealing with her innermost feelings about the past.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC for an exchange for an honest review.

Really worth a read. Excellent book.

Thank you to Netgalley and Girl Friday Productions for the e-ARC I finished this book and a few days later I could not remember what the book was about to write a review. This story to me seemed uneventful there was just so much on a relationship for it to finish how it did

Callie was supposed to move across the country with her boyfriend, Ethan, after college, once she’d spent the summer with her parents, but instead she shocks him by breaking up with him and never seeing him again. Fast forward 10 years, Callie is still living in her parents house (minus the parents, who have moved to Florida), working as a teacher and has just discovered her ex boyfriend has made a feature movie….starring their breakup. 

Her sister keeps telling her she’s stuck in a rut, not growing up, and now it’s time for Callie to figure out whether she’s still stuck on Ethan.  

I really enjoyed this one! A relaxing and fun read with plenty of drama and a build up to finding out what really happened between Callie and Ethan.  Each and every character was so well written in Typecast. They all had such distinct personalities and their own difficulties navigating their way through life. 

I loved watching Callie piece together her doubts about whether she’d made the right decisions in life, and the exploration of how those decisions can haunt us, and affect life in the present, if we let them.

This was such an interesting and unique premise in what could have been a run of the mill romance book.  I’d highly recommend picking this one up if you get the chance!

I am going to be 100% honest. This book was not for me. I thought the premise was great and interesting, but it really turned out to be not about that at all. I thought the most redeeming part of this book was the relationship progression between Callie and Nina.

Also, I am aware that this book still needs editing but there were a lot of grammatical issues that were glaring and hard to read through. I'm not sure if it was purposeful, but the book switched between 1st and 3rd perspective. It threw me out of really caring about what happened to Callie.

I did, however, enjoy Callie and Ben's blossoming relationship. I wish there would have been more focus there.

I didn’t care for the main character. She broke up with her boyfriend ten years ago and is unable to move on. Her parents have two homes and live in the Florida home. Callie lives in the other house, rent free. When her sister and family move in while their home is being renovated, Callie feels put out. And just to show how bad her life can get, her ex has written a movie script about their breakup and she is worried what it will reveal about her. Instead of immediately reaching out to him and finding out, she does some cyber stalking. Grow up! This could be considered a coming of age story for 31 year old Callie. As an older adult, I just couldn’t relate to this book. Quick read though. Thank you to NetGalley and Girl Friday Books for the DRC in exchange for an honest review.

Callie is a 31 year old single woman, working as a pre school teacher in New Jersey. She is confronted by her past when her college boyfriend writes a movie that is eerily similar to their relationship.

I enjoyed the past and present timeline of this story. The “before” chapters really helped the reader understand the college relationship between Callie and Ethan, and I really enjoyed seeing them as a couple, despite knowing they no longer were together. I was pleasantly surprised that this is a book of growth for Callie, and not about trying to get her old boyfriend back. Callie grew throughout the story, and the reader gained insight into her relationships with family and friends through the “after” chapters.

This is a quick read and good for those who like books with strong female characters, character growth and development, and a little bit of family/romantic drama.

Thank you NetGalley and the author for my eARC.

I really loved the premise of this book and I was excited to read, but there was a stylistic choice that irritated me and I couldn't get past it. The flashbacks were in first person but the present story was in third person - for some people this may not be an issue but it was throwing me off while reading and made it hard for me to get into the story.

Plot wise and character wise this book was interesting and it definitely had promise. But there was this little stylistic thing that bugged me.

The flashbacks are in first person while the present is in third.

Now, thats not something that will bug everyone. If you're okay with it, I suggest giving this book a chance. But for me personally it was irritating. I'm not a huge fan of it in books with multiple characters. It happening in a book with one character was just gah.

This book was absolutely amazing. While it did hit a bit close to home for me in some areas, I am still glad that I read it. In some ways reading a book that hits a bit closer than you would like it to is better because it allows you to look at your life in a different way.

Callie, our main character, is at a bit of a crossroads. One that she has been at for a while now. She is still questioning decisions she made after graduating from college while living in her parents house since they moved to Florida. As her family moves back in for many different reasons and she reads an article in her alumni magazine about her ex-boyfriend, she begins to question everything. We follow her as she re-evaluates her decisions and how she got to where she is and what she really wants out of her life.

I would recommend this book for anyone in their 30s who feels a bit stuck.

Thank you to Andrea J. Stein, the author, for reaching out to me to review this masterpiece.

How would you feel if your ex wrote a movie about your break-up? A movie that's about to released across the nation with coverage in every single magazine and newspaper that you pick up? Well....exactly

It's been ten years since Callie broke up with Ethan, her college sweetheart. For four years they were inseparable and, just before they were planning to move across the country together to California, Callie ended it over the phone. Callie had good reasons, but wasn't able to be honest with Ethan and the guilt has been gnawing away at her ever since. The last ten years of her life have been spent in a kind of limbo. Professionally successful as a teacher, Callie is back living in her parents house (a bone of contention with her sister Nina) and has not been able to engage fully in another relationship since Ethan. And then this movie comes along and starts to stir things up....Callie is in danger of sabotaging her future happiness unless she's able to somehow close the book on this chapter of her life

The story of Callie and Ethan is told through dual timelines with chapters based in the present and flashing back to their college years. I particularly liked seeing Callie in all of her life role; as teacher, sister, aunt and friend. It was lovely to see how well she related to her young class at school and also her niece. She's a born teacher! Life is full of "what ifs" and seeing how this impacted on Callie and her romantic life was an interesting and different take on a book that was, in part, about relationships and romance, but mainly around Callie's relationship with herself.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my eARC.

Callie has a nice, quiet life in her hometown in New Jersey. She is living in her parents’ old house, she has great friends, and loves her job. She’s been wanting to start dating, but just can’t seem to let go of her past. When she finds out that her ex-boyfriend, Ethan, has written a movie about her, it brings up all kinds of feelings. Was she right to break up with him ten years ago? Should she have moved to California with him after all? Should she get back together with him? She is confused why he would write a movie about her after all this time. Her friends and family and wary for her and think she should let it go, but she just wants answers.

This book was really cute and surprisingly deep. I didn’t expect that back story at all for Callie, but I really loved it. There were times when I didn’t like Nina, but overall the characters were pretty likable. I absolutely loved Ben. He was such a sweetheart all the way through. I really didn’t like Ethan, even in the “before” chapters. I thought he was super controlling. I loved how dedicated Callie was to her job. She seems like such a great teacher. Her relationship with her niece, Zoe, was really sweet. I thought the book was well written and loved how it all came together in the end.

I received an advanced reader copy courtesy of NetGalley and Girl Friday in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed Andrea Stein's debut novel, Typecast. Even though the protagonist is a woman in her early thirties, in many ways, this is a coming-of-age novel. As the story progresses, we learn how and why events from the past stunted Callie. She's chosen a career that she loves, but in all other aspects of her life, Callie lives in a delayed adolescence.

She wasn't always the most likable character. Her journey was messy, and her fears and immaturity caused her to make some pretty big mistakes, but the more we learn about her past, the more I could empathize and root for her to find herself—and not continue to "play the role" others have cast for her.

And I think that's the book's biggest strength. All the characters are pretty flawed people—Callie's sister, mother, the ex—but they feel very believable and very human.

The author deftly handles the threads of Callie's past and present and her connections with friends and family to weave a rich story. I cared about the characters and was very satisfied with how everything came together in the end.

Well, look at me, actually reading a Netgalley book before the Publication date. I was so excited to read this one, that I put it almost at the top of my TBR. And I will tell you; I was NOT wrong. This book was so much fun. I felt an instant connection with Callie. Maybe because she was a teacher, but also because she was just so kind! I felt like this book could end in a hundred different ways, and I was very happy with the way it did.

Pros
Main character: Callie is going right to the top of my favorite main characters this year after finishing this book. She feels super real to me. She's loving, kind and caring, but has bad character traits as well. She does tend to let people walk all over her and doesn't always speak her mind. I loved that she's a teacher, I felt an instant connection because of that. There were real teacher things in this book, like staff meetings, hard times with certain children and/or parents and doing actual work in your weekends.
Timeline: The timeline in this book was fun! I loved the switches between past and present. It really changes up the story, keeps it paced and makes me wonder what happened. This timeline made it feel like the book also had a bit of mystery.
Humor: Oh yes! The humor, banter, sarcasm and flirting in this book was so amazing. It was a light breeze of fresh air and I needed it so much! Really fun and definitely my kind of humor.
Character development: Callie really takes the time to reflect on her choices. She has feelings of doubt, of guilt and she wonders about what could have been in life. In this book she really finds her voice and the last 10% of the book were SO good. It definitely was what I had hoped for and what I wanted for Callie.


Cons
No!

Overall
One of my favorite women's fiction books this year. Not like I read them every day, but I have read a few and this one is at the top of my list. I'm curious what Stein does next and will definitely keep following her. Amazing writing, great characters and fun plot!